A former Nokia employee who duped four men into believing that he could buy Nokia stocks for them on the cheap was sentenced to eight months' jail on Monday.

Gordon Yuen Yu-Tang, 42, was with Nokia from September 1999 to February last year when he cheated the men of $367,176 between 2003 and 2005.

The ex-chief technologist, now a freelance consultant, had earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of cheating involving about $300,000.

Four other charges were taken into consideration.

Bail of $90,000 was allowed pending his appeal against sentence.

The court heard that he was among selected employees of Nokia nominated to take part in the Nokia stock option scheme.

Under the scheme, the employee could buy a specified number of Nokia shares at predetermined rates, which were usually lower than the market's.

He told his victims that he was granted options to buy many Nokia stocks at discounted prices, and lied that he would exercise the option to buy shares on their behalf.

The victims, including two of his reservist friends, were cheated of between $15,000 and $197,676 each.

He could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined on each cheating charge.